Head coach Tom Shuman, right, addresses his team following their disappointing loss to Hillsboro.

Search for replacement to begin soon
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Tom Shuman, second-year head football coach at Ravenwood High School, resigned his post Wednesday. He announced his decision to his team when they gathered to turn in equipment yesterday afternoon.

Ravenwood ended its 2010 season with a 3-7 record, 1-4 in District 11-AAA play.  In 2009, the Raptors ended the season with a 5-5 record. Both seasons were impacted by injuries to key players.

“ I love the players and students at the school,” Shuman told BHP Thursday afternoon, but declined to offer details on his decision, beyond referencing verse Luke 6:35 in the Bible.

The veteran coach with more than 25 years of experience took the helm of the Raptors, back-to-back state finalists in 2005 and 2006, after Brian Rector stepped down following the 2008 season. Shuman came to Ravenwood in 2004 as the offensive line coach after coaching at Braxton County High in West Virginia for 18 years.

As an assistant, he helped the Raptors capture the 2005 5A state championship in the program’s third year of varsity play.

In a 2009 preseason interview, Shuman told Brentwood Home Page that he wanted to “grow the program in all directions. We haven’t had a freshman team here for a while. And we’ve had JV teams but there’s never been a big emphasis on it.”

Though the varsity program has struggled during this tenure, Shuman achieved success  with the freshman and JV programs. Both had winning seasons this year.

“His efforts in that regard were very good,” RHS athletic director Patrick Whitlock said. “We think bright times are ahead. We feel good about those freshmen and sophomore classes.”

Whitlock would not say if Shuman had been asked to resign. He did offer that “we’re appreciative of the job he’s done as an assistant and head coach.”

Ravenwood, which opened in 2002, has only been playing varsity football six seasons. Its early success, however, has resulted in high expectations like schools with much longer legacies.

Prior to the just concluded season, Shuman said the only pressure he felt is the pressure he put on himself. He told BHP in August that he had learned a lot in his first year as a head coach.

“I had coached just about every position there is on a football field,” he told writer Carol Stuart. “I'd been a head wrestling coach, but I never attempted to do anything on a scale of coaching a 6A football team in Williamson County. There's a lot more to it than coaching a team.”

Shuman compared the Ravenwood role to that of a corporate CEO. He said he tried to anticipate and address the needs of parents, the community and school administrators, instead of letting “the other things try to take care of themselves.”

Whitlock said there wasn’t a time frame for finding Shuman’s replacement but the job will be posted and the search will begin soon.

“We would like to move quickly but we want to make sure we have the right fit for Ravenwood and for our football program,” he said.